In general, a demand for a secondary battery is increasing due to the technological development of a mobile device and an increase in demand therefor, and among others, a lithium (ion/polymer) secondary battery having a high energy density and operating voltage and excellent preservation and life characteristics is being widely used as an energy source for various electronic products including various mobile devices.
The lithium (ion/polymer) secondary battery has a structure in which an electrode assembly having a structure in which a cathode and an anode are alternately stacked and a separator is disposed inbetween is stored in an external casing.
An electrode forming the electrode assembly has a structure in which an electrode tab is exposed to one end of a flat electrode plate, and a mold cutter has been typically used in order to manufacture the electrode plate to which the electrode tab is exposed. In particular, the electrode plate to which the electrode tab is exposed is manufactured by using the mold cutter having a shape capable of remaining the shape of the electrode tab on an electrode plate material and cutting out other portions.
As such, when an electrode material is cut by using the mold cutter, there is an advantage in that cutting quality is high but there are limitations in that it takes a lot of time to manufacture a mold cutter having a precise shape and the mold cutter itself is expensive, and there is another limitation in that it has no choice but to cut the electrode material according to the shape of the mold cutter only. Thus, in order to manufacture an electrode plate having various shapes and sizes on a factory line cutting the electrode material, processes of stopping a production line, replacing the mold cutter and then re-operating the production line should be repeated many times.
Providing and replacing various kinds of mold cutters do not only increase the production cost of the mold cutter but also remarkably decrease the yield of the electrode plate that may be produced for a unit time.